[This sermon is contributed by Hal Seed of New Song Church in Oceanside, California and of www.PastorMentor.com. Hal is the author of numerous books including The God Questions and The Bible Questions. If you are interested in The Bible Questions Church-wide Campaign, please visit and watch Hal’s video at www.PastorMentor.com.]
This morning we’re beginning a brand new series called, “MasterStoryteller.” During His ministry on earth, Jesus told dozens, maybe hundreds of vivid stories that changed people’s lives. Forty-five of these stories are recorded in gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. Many of them have become classic pieces of literature the world over. People on every continent recognize stories like The Good Samaritan, The Pearl of Great Price, The Parable of the Mustard Seed, The Prodigal Son, and The Rich Man and Lazarus. Phrases from these stories have seeped into almost every culture. Phrases like, “The first shall be last and the last shall be first.” “Separating the sheep from the goats.”“Sifting the wheat from the chaff.” “Well done, good and faithful servant.” all come from stories told by Jesus, the MasterStoryteller.
A strong argument could be made that the greatest composer, the greatest originator of stories, was Jesus of Nazareth. He not only told stories that then were retold and retold and retold - His stories changed lives. At the end of His famous Sermon on the Mount, as Jesus told the story of The Wise Man Who Built His House on the Rock, the people who heard the story were amazed at His teaching. At the end of the story of The Sower of the Seeds, the disciples were so moved they took Jesus aside to ask for more. Every time Jesus told a story, crowds would gather and then go home changed. That’s why we’ll be looking at seven of Jesus’ stories this summer.
Here’s my promise to you: if you will come for all seven sermons this summer, if you’ll listen, take notes and respond, you will be a more Jesus-like person by the time the time school rolls around. You’ll know God better, you’ll want to live for Him more fully, you’ll approach life with greater understanding and ability: you’ll be a better person. That’s my promise to you.
That’s a much better promise than whatever you were hoping to get out of a week or two’s vacation, isn’t it? So remake your summer plans. After all, they say it’s going to be a bad hurricane season in the Caribbean, so you wouldn’t want to go there. The dollar has fallen against the Euro, the Pound, and the Canadian dollar, so those destinations are all out. You live within a 10 minute drive of the beach, Sea World is ½ hour away, so is Lego Land, The Wild Animal Park, and the San Diego Zoo. Gas prices are at an all time high, repurpose your plans and make it a New Song/MasterStorytelling summer.
- Or… come every weekend you’re in town, and listen to the podcast online for the weeks your on vacation. Deal?
Let me pray, and then we’ll dive into our series.
Master, thank you for what we’re going to experience together over the coming weeks. Every person in this room came here this morning hoping for either a word from You or a sign from You, or proof that You exist and care about them. Fulfill these hopes now I pray, by using the words of my mouth and the thoughts of our minds together. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Find a Bible and turn to Matthew 20 (p. 976).
When you get there, look at the last few verses of Matthew 19, I want to read from there to show you what prompted this masterstory from Jesus. (Read 19:27-30).
Now look at the end of the masterstory, at Matt. 20:16.
Are Matthew 19:30 and Matthew 20:16 the same? No, they’re reversed. 19:30 starts with, “many who are first will be last,” and 20:16 starts with “the last will be first.”
This is a story that Jesus tells in response to Peter’s concern in chapter 19. Follow me for a minute.
Look up at the heading just above 19:16 and tell me what that says. “The Rich Young Ruler.” The Rich Young Ruler was a 1st century yuppie who had it all. – Wealth, position, prestige, and, in his eyes, he was doing everything rightly. He comes to Jesus to be validated.
“Rabbi,” he says, “what good thing must I do to inherit eternal life?”
Jesus, recognizing the man’s self-importance says, “Well, you must keep the 10 commandments.”
“Done,” say the Rich Young Ruler. “Done. I’ve kept them all from my youth. I am not only rich, young and handsome, I am morally perfect.”
“Okay,” Jesus says, “The first commandment is to have no other gods before God. If you’re really keeping that one, if God really is more important to you than all the things you own, it won’t bother you to sell everything you have and give it to God.”
The passage says, “The man walked away sad, because he had great wealth.”
This is the situation out of which the master tells His story. A first-tier guy gets turned away.
Peter, who has been standing next to Jesus during this discussion looks at the sad, smart, rich guy walking away and whispers to Jesus, “Lord, if the Rich Young Ruler can’t make it, what hope is there for us! We’re nothing, just common fisherman. We have left everything to follow you, is there no hope for us?”
To which Jesus says, “Everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.” – Matthew 19:29
“Peter, your sacrifices will be rewarded beyond your wildest dreams. But, Peter, “Many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first.” - Let me tell you a story about that.
Mark and Susie Alderson have been attending New Song since what we call our, “portable days.” In the early days of the church, we would pack a trailer full of equipment, unload it at a local school, hold church there, and then pack up and put the trailer away.
Mark is the coordinator for San Diego’s annual Holiday Bowl. Every year he recruits volunteers to help the city host its biggest bowl game, and for many years now, he’s asked Lori and I to be part of that volunteer team.
The first year Mark asked us, he said, “Show up about 3 o’clock at the security office outside the main gate.”
So Lori and I showed up at 3 o’clock and found a line about ½ block long of people waiting outside the main gate. I remember walking up thinking, “There is no way we are going to get in.” But we walked up to the front of the line, said, “We’re Hal and Lori Seed, friends of Mark Alderson.” And the guard said, “Come on in.”
I remember the look in the eyes of all the football fans. They had expensive tickets, all the right gear, and they had to wait another 1 ½ before they could get in.
Once inside the security office, we were told to take a certain elevator up to the press level, where Mark was waiting for us. We found the elevator, pushed the button, and when the elevator opened, a lady on a stool asked us what floor we wanted. “Press level,” we said. There was a couple behind us who tried to get on, but they weren’t going to the Press Level, so she said, “I’m sorry, this is a special elevator, it’s restricted to those going to the Press Level.” So we got in and they didn’t.
Mark gave us special passes to put around our necks that read, “All-Access Pass.” He said, “You can go anywhere in the stadium with these.” So, after the game, we rode that same special elevator down to the field level. There was a guard standing outside the elevator. He looked at our passes and let us by without a word. To the other people in the elevator he said, “I’m sorry, this is restricted access,” and sent them back up to the main level.
All day, Lori and I got into places that nobodies like us never get into, because of our connection to Mark. All the somebodies got turned away. The last got in first.
A lot of people I know worry that they’ll never cut it with God, because they’re nobodies. Maybe you’ve felt that way. – Why would He care about you, why would He pay attention to you, why would He do anything for you, when there are so many more important people to tend to in this world? Have you ever felt that way? Have you ever felt small in God’s eyes? This is a story for you.
That’s what Peter and company were feeling on the day Jesus composed this story. It’s called, “The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard,” but it really should be called, “The God who is Not a Capitalist,” because in this story Jesus demonstrates in high definition that God breaks all the economic rules. This story of Jesus’ isn’t about the workers, it’s about the employer, the master who hires and hires and hires and then pays the last first and the first last.
Jesus’ story is about day laborers. Men who are so low on the sociological totem pole that they can’t get real jobs, so every day they hang out on Mission Avenue, hoping someone will have a need for their services, notice them, and offer them a job for the day.
Jesus, the MasterStoryteller, packs His story with surprises. He deliberately leads His listeners along until they understand that God’s compassion and generosity are like no other person in the world.
Let me take you on a backstage tour of the story.
Again, context: Peter’s worried that if the Rich Young Ruler doesn’t measure up, he’s certainly not going to measure up. So Jesus tells him that The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire men to work in his vineyard. He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard. – Matthew 20:1-2
Workers in that time and place start at 6 a.m. So that’s what time these men are hired. They’re hired to work a full day, which for them would be 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.
About the third hour he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. He told them, “You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.” So they went. – Matthew 20:3-4
The ninth hour is 9 a.m. so this second group is being hired for a 9 hour day. How much does the master agree to pay them? “Whatever is right.”
He went again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour and did the same thing. – Matthew 20:5 So what would he have agreed to pay these men? “Whatever is right.”
About the eleventh hour he went out and found still others standing around. – So this is 5 p.m. and the day ends at 6, so he asks the obvious question – “Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?” - Matthew 20:6
“Because no one has hired us,” they answered. - Matthew 20:7
Were these men lazy? (No. If they were lazy, they would have headed home about noon.) Why weren’t they working? - They just couldn’t get a job.
So, the master hires them too. Only look at his agreement with them: “You also go and work in my vineyard.” - What does he agree to pay them? Nothing. They’ve only got the hope that he’s a good man and will do something for them. Maybe, if they prove themselves in this last hour, he’ll come and hire them for a full day tomorrow. Maybe this is a try-out to get a job tomorrow. He may not pay them anything, and if he doesn’t, at least they will be able to go home and tell their family that they tried and they did all the work they could, even though it was just for one hour.
Let me show you a few more things backstage before we draw some lessons from this. V. 8 – “When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.” - Matthew 20:8 Notice who actually paid these men. Was it the master? (No, it was the foreman.)
Okay, you remember the rest of the story, and you read it as a capitalist, so it makes no sense to you. Why would the master pay everybody the same amount? Why would the master force the first hour workers to watch the last hour workers get what they didn’t deserve? Why did Jesus make up this story? Why did He tell this story? What are we supposed to take from it anyway?
Let’s find out.
This is a story that is familiar, but foreign to us. We didn’t grow up in Israel, we don’t speak Greek, and we don’t live in the 1st century. If we did, we would hear the story in a certain way.
Some of you know what I’m about to explain next because you’ve been around here for awhile, so this will be review for you, but many of you might not know that all middle eastern stories are written in a pattern that’s called a “Chiasm.”
This is a “Chi” (It’s our letter “X”). If you erase the right side, you have a symmetry that looks like this (draw on board). So that the beginning of the story matches the end of the story, etc. This story looks like this.
Here’s how the story goes.
A. The Story:
1 Agreement made (v. 2)
2 Promise of justice (v. 4)
3 Eleventh hour workers hired (v. 7)
4 “The Wage” (v. 8)
3’ Eleventh hour workers paid (v. 9)
2’ Question of justice (v. 11)
1’ Agreement kept (v. 15)
The middle point is always the main point of the story: The mainpoint of this story by Jesus is, even the nobodies receive “the wage.”
In this masterstory are seven surprises. The next few minutes are going to be upper divisional Bible, so hold with me and you’ll see this story like you’ve never seen it before.
B. Seven Surprises: The first one comes at the end of the day, when a new character is introduced. Up until now, all we’re aware of is that there is a landowner and people he’s hiring. Suddenly, when it comes time to pay the workers, a foreman comes on the scene. This is very significant, because every first century Middle Easterner would know that if a landowner had a foremen, it would be the foreman’s job was to hire laborers.
So, why did the master hire all the laborers himself?
Answer: because he wanted to. This is a master who doesn’t have to come to the people. He comes and hires them because he wants to come, he chose to come.
1. The master didn’t have to come, He chose to come. This is a key to the story. You can’t appreciate how the master feels unless you understand what the master does. The master comes to the marketplace five times throughout the heat of the day.
Why? Because he cares about people. When he came first thing in the morning, he was probably on his way from his house to the fields. The marketplace was on the way. The master knew exactly how many laborers he needed to hire to get the job done, and that’s how many he hired, figuring that other landowners would come and hire the rest.
But, curiosity and love drag him back into the village at 9 a.m., just to see how many haven’t been hired. There is still a crowd of men there, so he hires some more, figuring someone else will hire the rest of the willing, and the men who are lazy will go home.
At noon, he comes back again. Why? Because of love. He hires more, promising to pay the nine o’clock workers and the noon time workers, “What is fair” – the Greek word here means, “What is just.” He doesn’t name a wage, just a promise: “I’ll pay you a just wage for the amount you work.”
He does this at nine, he does this at noon, and he does this at 3p.m. “I will do what is just.” Three times he makes this promise. Three times it raises a question, “What is just?”
That leads to the second surprise. The second surprise is what the master pays. When the foreman brings the money purse,
2. The master paid everyone “the wage.” That’s the word in the Greek, “the wage.” The wage was a denarius, it’s what a soldier or laborer received for a normal day’s work. It’s the amount it took for a commoner to take care of his family for a day. If he earns more than that, he can save. If he earns less, they will starve. The master does not pay what they deserve, he pays what is just, he pays a living wage.
Bear in mind, this is a Middle Eastern Jewish business man. When the audience listening to Jesus heard that the businessman was overpaying his workers, they weren’t just surprised, they were shocked.
3. The master is surprisingly generous and compassionate.
He is like no other master ever heard of before. He is a master who is generous and compassionate, and he wants everyone to know it. That’s why he pays the last first, so that everyone will see it.
The fourth surprise is the order in which the workers were paid. Last to first, so that everyone has an encounter with the master’s generosity and compassion.
4. First hour workers witnessed the master’s compassion, the eleventh hour workers experienced his compassion.
No one went home that day thinking this was an ordinary man. This is a master who cares about the least.
Which raises the question: If he was concerned about these men feeding their families, why didn’t he just hand them a denarius and send them home? Why make them work? Every Middle Easterner knows that you never go into the marketplace guessing at how many workers you’ll need for the day. When the master showed up at 6 a.m., he knew exactly how many men he needed. When he hired more, it wasn’t out of need, it was out of care.- And that, friends, is a critical quality to understand about God.
God can create anything He wants. He can do anything He wants. He lives in perfect unity, harmony and peace with Himself. He’s the God who has no needs. So, when He comes to us and invites us to come work in His fields, it’s not because He has a need, it’s because He has a love. God has never once thought of you and hoped you’d do something that would make His life better. Every time He turns towards you, it’s to make YOUR life better. He’s God, His life can’t get any better.
But ours can, which is why Jesus told this story. He’s saying, “God wants everyone to know that He is shockingly generous and unimaginably compassionate. If you have ever wondered, if you’ve ever been tempted to wonder if God would want to pay attention to you because you’re not a Rich Young Ruler, you’re just a normal everyday drooler, never wonder again.”
Those who think they should be last in God’s eyes will be staggered to learn that they are first in His eyes, the last shall be first. – And the first, those who think that God is lucky to have them, will be shocked to learn that God is happy to have them, but He doesn’t need them. He’s not beholden to them. They are lucky to have Him, not vice versa.
So, why doesn’t the master just give those standing around a denarius to feed their family? Because this master is not only interested in physical justice, He’s concerned about justice of the heart. He knows that every man who goes home without money or work will not eat and will feel bad about himself. He knows that every man who goes home with money and no work, will eat, but still feel bad himself, because he couldn’t provide for his family, he relied on charity. He couldn’t find work. The Master wants each laborer to go home with joy because, by the work of his own hands, he has fed his family. He’s man, with dignity intact.
“This,” Jesus is saying, “is the Master in heaven.”
The fifth surprise comes from outside the story – from before the story. When Peter asks Jesus “What about me?” Jesus answer is both surprising and wonderful.
Peter: “We have left everything to follow you! What then will there be for us?”
Jesus: “Everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.”
Wow! This is why Jesus feels free to craft a story about the least, because He’s already made an outstanding promise to the most. “The least,” will get “the wage,” while
5. Those who sacrifice much will be rewarded with much more. (19:29).
In the 1990’s, I owned a stock that went up over 10 times its original value. It was one of those rare, astronomical returns-on-investment. No one can promise a 10 times investment, no one can promise a doubling of your investment. No one - except the master, who guarantees not 2, not 10, not 20 times your investment, but 100 times. It’s one of the reasons I feel so good about this church.
In many churches, 80% of the work is done by 20% of the people and 80% of the giving is done by 20% of the people. Which means that one day, 20% of the people will receive 100 times investments, while the rest will receive, “the wage.”
Here at New Song, the percentage of servants and givers so far exceeds that. The vast majority of you are 100 times-ers. Those who sacrifice much will be rewarded much more, and I am looking at “much more” people right here.
The sixth surprise comes at the end of the story. It comes at the end of the story because the story has no end.
6. The story doesn’t end, it stops.
We saw this same technique used by Jonah when we studied his book this winter. Jesus uses this technique in His story of the Good Samaritan and His story of the Prodigal Father. He doesn’t end the story, He just stops it.
Look at the end of this story. The master asks, “Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?” – Matthew 20:15
The story ends with a question. Jesus gives the moral to the story in the next verse when He says, “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.” – Matthew 20:16 He’s putting the cap on the symmetry of the story. It starts with “The first shall be last and the last first.” And ends with the reverse. But the story itself, how does it end? Do the complaining employees obey the master’s command by taking their pay and leaving, or do they continue shouting at him that he is unfair? We are not told. We are not told. We don’t know how the story ends.
Why? That’s the seventh surprise. We’re not given the end of the story because the storyteller wants US to complete the story. He wants US to find ourselves in the story and write our own ending.
So, find yourself in the story. Who are you in this story?
You’re not the Master.
You’re not the Foreman.
That leaves the resentful first hour worker
and the grateful last hour worker.
Which will you be? Will you be a complainer? Whining that God has given as much to others who deserved less? Will you spend your time looking at how hard you’ve worked, or will you spend your time appreciating a surprising God who is generous and compassionate, giving us each day, “the wage,” – giving us each day our daily bread, and our dignity?
Jesus wants you to find yourself in the story and Jesus wants you to find a higher definition picture of God in the story. He’s the God who is not a capitalist. The God who is like no man. The God who surprises us at almost every turn. And therefore, He is the God to whom you can turn.
Would you like to turn to Him today? Stand with me and let me pray for you.
Prayer. Invitation to come to Christ. Invitation to come forward for prayer.
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